Iran said on Thursday that it plans to award a project worth $1.2 billion to Russia to establish an electric train service to connect the north to a key city east of capital Tehran.

Abbas Akhundi, Iran’s minister of roads and urban development, told reporters that the train service will start in Garmsar in eastern Tehran and will lead to the border town of Incheh Borun in the northeastern Golestan province.

Akhundi said a proposal to establish the train service was raised during a meeting with the Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak who is visiting Tehran, IRNA reported.

He further said that Iran had introduced a total of 121 projects that are collectively worth €25 billion to the Russian delegation.

Akhundi said the projects mainly concerned road, railway and maritime transportation development plans.

The implementation of those projects, the Iranian minister added, will open a new chapter in relations between the two countries.

Novak, for his part, described Iran’s projects as important and expressed hope that satisfactory results would be obtained for both Tehran and Moscow in discussions over them.

The Russian minister, heading a 50-member delegation, arrived in Tehran on Wednesday to discuss joint economic projects.

Mahmoud Vaezi, Iran’s minister of communications and information technology, told reporters after meeting Novak that Moscow has pledged to issue a credit line of $5 billion for joint projects with Iran.

Vaezi, who is a co-chairman of the Iran-Russian joint economic commission, said the credit line is expected to usher in a new era in Iran-Russia economic relations.

By Press TV